Silent Travelers by Alan M. Kraut and Eugenic Nation by Alexandra Minna Stern - Personal Statement Example

and Position Papers Silent travelers by Alan M. Kraut Kraut does a wonderful job ofgiving me a new insight into the matters concerning diversity and discrimination. Much has been said about the effects of immigration on the United States’ history, as well as the manner in which subsequent waves of the immigrants, triggered by foreign and domestic economic forces and usually faced by the social and religious chauvinism, have impacted the population and its way of doing things. However, we find that very little has been said concerning the manner in which public health practices and medical knowledge, developing over time and integrating with the social patterns, have contributed to the whole process by which the newcomers are incorporate into the general population. Nevertheless, this task has been undertaken by Kraut, the immigrants’ grandson and a historian, by the use of the picture of double helix of deoxyribonucleic acid to represent the intimate but complicated connection between the fear of foreignness and concern for health that continues coloring the way we adopt to the newcomers or new arrivals. Kraut starts presenting this with a dramatic account of how the immigrants coming from Haiti; that is early in the epidemic of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, were labeled as a high-risk group of people (Kraut 3-7). This label incorrectly lingered after the virus infection of human immunodeficiency was discovered. Between the year 1881 and 1924, over twenty three million immigrants found their way into the United States of America, and the nation has since never been the same again. Most of us are connected to the wave of immigration, which makes a better comprehension of the incorporative approach appropriate. These immigrations brought tension between the nativists, who perceived the immigrants as a great threat to the culture of America and lifestyle, and the assimilists, who were focused on improving medical and educational opportunities for the incoming people (Kraut 40-57). Kraut has helped me to understand what was taking place as he explores the tensions that existed between the two factions. He has enabled me to link the happenings during that time to the current attitudes towards immigrants whereas implying that America is known for medical discrimination towards the immigrants. To exemplify this, the writer describes how the Chinese, Irish, Italian and Jewish immigrants, in their turn, have all been held accountable for a wide range of diseases that range from the initiation of some new contagious diseases to an overall reduction of the intelligence in the American society. It is true that some of the language of the nativists is unsettlingly suggestive of the propaganda of Nazi in the 1930s. Kraut comprehensively describes how the assimilists, Kraut vividly describes how assimilists, public health officials and insightful politicians established programs of public health in response to the immigrants’ health requirements. Nonetheless, innovations like the program of visiting nurse, school physical appraisal nutritional programs that are school-based and sanitary standards for building were institutionalized, and, with time, there was occurrence of medical assimilation by the immigrants, even though with not substantial prejudice and misunderstanding. As a person who is interested in private and public response to the health programs of immigrants, this book has been of great help. Eugenic Nation by Alexandra Minna Stern The “Eugenic Nation” by Stern presents a delectably new approach to the policies and ideas of Hereditarian’s history from the start of the century to the 1960s. Nonetheless, pushing the boundaries of what has been considered as eugenics, the writer regards eugenics in America as a comprehensive or all-round set of programs that are focused on better breeding (Stern 3-9). We do not only learn about the conventional subjects like hereditarian idea, but also the testing of children in school during the early twenty first century. Stern has to a great extent helped me to understand better matters regarding diversity and discrimination. His presentations had changed my understanding and perception of diversity and discrimination by uncovering to me the things that I did not know about the whole issue, and how it happened in the past. The current books about eugenics that are essentially focused on uncovering the misdeeds of the White racism or nativism, attempt to narrate a dreadful tale of eugenics, whereby they admit that eugenics is actually back and is here to stay for long. This is particularly true as much of the text deals with the revealing of the past evils in the name of the eugenics; he finishes with a plea of egalitarian for the new eugenics to be availed to all. To show this, in the concluding paragraph, Stern says that we should cautiously try to uncover the presumptions that shape the genetic testing and technology, not to denounce these processes that preferably should be extensively available avenues of health, but so as to clarify and possibly challenge the fundamental preconceptions regarding what and who is considered normal and acceptable or even abnormal and unacceptable (Stern 355-361). In addition, he goes ahead to suggest that the problem that is faced by people at present is less whether a thing is or even is not explicitly eugenic, but whether the genetic or reproductive practices and technologies are fairly distributed across the entire population. Moreover, the writer asserts that in a nation that has massive gaps in the access of medical cares, insurance coverage, and health literacy, we find that some can be in a position of affording medical alternatives that the others cannot. The intense health unfairness or inequality in the United States, which inexplicably hurt ethical and racial minorities, the working poor and the unemployed offer a breeding ground for perilous combination of the aesthetic and physical development of the few and the medical desertion or neglect of some (Stern 355-361). What has been revealed to me by the about eugenics is that the same issues or problems that we are seeing presently have been there one hundred years ago. It is true that presently political appropriateness does not permit open discussions regarding differences on the basis of frequency of genes. However, the message is being taken in by people slowly. This is a wonderful book that can help anyone who is interested in getting a clear insight into the issue of discrimination and diversity as the writer vividly reveals how the issue was perpetrated and concealed during the past. Works cited Kraut M. Alan. Silent Travelers: Germs, Genes, and the "Immigrant Menace. Reprint. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995. Print. Stern Alexandra Minna. Eugenic Nation: Faults and Frontiers of Better Breeding in Modern America. (American Crossroads, number 17.) Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. 2005. Print. Read More